


A Helping Hand

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, M/M, working at their relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-18
Updated: 2015-08-18
Packaged: 2018-04-15 10:55:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4604091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every relationship needs a little help now and then.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Helping Hand

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alisanne](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alisanne/gifts).



> Written for alisanne for having written for snupin100's 400th challenge (and pretty much every challenge we've ever posted!) She gave the prompt “special”. Originally posted to Livejournal in 2013.

Snape leaned back in his chair, the paper slipping from his fingers as his eyes began to drift closed. Remus smiled to himself and wished that he had a camera to hand. Snape had spent most of the previous night working on a batch of Wolfsbane which he hoped would be as near to a cure for lycanthropy as it was possible to get – a dose only requiring it be taken every six months. Remus had told him that he didn't need to work quite so hard, but Snape's withering glare had put paid to that conversation.

Remus leaned forward and gently extricated the newspaper from Snape, glancing curiously at the article that had caught his lover's attention.

“Harry, of course,” Remus muttered to himself, as Harry's exploits for the Ministry made the front page. By the look on Harry's face he wasn't exactly happy about it.

“Smugness doesn't suit you,” Snape said.

Remus smiled as Snape adjusted himself on the seat.

“He doesn't do it deliberately, no matter what you think.”

“No, the _special one_ has no need.”

Remus sighed. It was an old argument and one that was wearing decidedly thin. He had thought that Harry and Snape were, if not friends, at least allies in the fight to improve the Ministry.

Snape's glance was almost apologetic. “You know my feelings on the boy.”

“Young man,” Remus corrected automatically. “And yes, I am _aware._ ”

Snape stood up. “I believe I will lie down for a few hours.” He swept out of the room before Remus could respond.

* * * * *

“I don't know what to do, Hermione. Banging their heads together doesn't seem like the answer, though it would probably make me feel a lot better.”

Hermione smiled around her mug of tea. “Maybe you just need to show him how special he is to you? It works for Ron all the time.”

Remus added another lump of sugar to his own tea. “I do try. He can just be so impossible sometimes that I feel like I need a break from him. And then I feel bad because he'll see it as some sort of rejection. And then I -”

“Remus,” Hermione said, placing a hand on his arm. “Do you love Snape?”

“Of course I do.”

Hermione just looked at him until he turned away. “And when was the last time you told _him_ that?”

Remus frowned. There must have been a time...neither of them were really ones for declarations. And they were living with each other for goodness sake. There must have been a moment when...

Remus slowly lowered his head and hit it against the table.

* * * * * *

Snape stepped into the kitchen, frowned, and then stepped out again.

“Severus?” Remus called. His voice sounded a little hoarse and Snape could well imagine that he'd been rehearsing what he wanted to say to the pots and pans all afternoon.

“I was merely trying to ascertain if I'd entered the correct residence,” Snape replied. He motioned towards the kitchen table. On it was an elaborate candlelit meal and Remus was wearing his best, well only, suit. “Is there an anniversary I have forgotten?”

“No,” Remus said. He moved over to Snape and took his hand. “Would you care to eat dinner with me this evening?”

Snape allowed himself to be lead to the table. “You are aware that you are being ridiculous?”

“What's so ridiculous about wanting to spend some time with the man I love?”

Remus was certain he detected a shiver in Snape's hand before he gently released it from Remus' hold. He did however sit down, even if he didn't say anything.

“Wine?” Remus asked, pouring out a generous glassful under Snape's watchful gaze.

“Why -"

“Do I need a reason to do something special? Perhaps I just felt like it. Perhaps I just love you.”

Remus stared pointedly at Snape, but Snape turned away first and didn’t even attempt any Legilimency. Remus smiled gratefully at him and began to eat. At least they still had that trust, even if other things had grown a little stale. Since their first official date, when Snape had finally been convinced that Remus was deadly serious, Snape had never tried to read his mind or pry when he met with his friends, even though Remus could see that at times Snape desperately wanted to.

“It'll get cold.”

After a moment Snape joined in eating, his wary gaze soon dissipating into something with decidedly more heat.

“I don't think I'm going to be able to finish this,” Snape said after a moment.

“Oh?” Remus tried to hide his disappointment. “Don't you like it?”

“On the contrary,” Snape replied. “I just have far more interesting uses for my mouth this evening.”

Remus looked up and stared at Snape as he stood up and began undoing his shirt.

“Oh,” Remus said again. Snape shook his head and pulled Remus up into a heated kiss.

“Bedroom. Now.”

* * * * * *

“Well that was - “ Remus started to say and then stopped, as Snape's hand covered his mouth.

“Special?”

Remus twisted his legs and flipped them so that he was now straddling Snape. “Yes,” he said with a laugh. “I think so.”

Snape inclined his head to one side, looking remarkably unruffled considering what they'd just been doing. “It was...adequate.”

There was a disconcertingly Dumbledore-like twinkle in his eyes though, so Remus decided he was going to show him exactly how special they were together.

* * * * * *

Three days later a bottle of champagne and a large bunch of flowers arrived on Hermione's doorstep. The note card only said “Thank you”. Hermione didn't need a signature to know who had sent it. Though she and Ron did enjoy their own special evening that night.


End file.
